The Image staff muses on the culture of keeping up appearances

Royal Wedding Round-Up: There's a doughnut and an app, but there's no ring for Prince William

April 5, 2011 | 2:02
pm

There's nothing we love more than a good old fashioned media frenzy, and nothing causes a frenzy like a royal wedding. Consider the pending nuptials of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton. We've read breathless reports on the number of canapes to be served at the wedding (10,000), considered ordering the unfortunately named "KaTea and William" commemorative royal wedding tea bags and felt ourselves slightly nauseated by a manicure featuring a picture of Kate and William on each nail. (YUCK!)

As the countdown to the big day (April 29, in case you didn't know) continues, we'll round up some of our favorite bits of non-essential royal reporting here on this blog.

Item 1: Royal weddings? There's an app for that. The Royal Collections, which usually deals in exhibitions, has created a smart phone app to commemorate the big day. The app tells the story of seven royal weddings dating back to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's nuptials in 1840 and will provide historical context for the upcoming wedding. It will be available from the Apple Apps Store and the Android Market on April 18.

Item 2: Dunkin' Donuts pays its respects with heart-shaped doughnut. From April 24-29, participating Dunkin' Donuts will sell the Royal Wedding Donut: a heart-shaped, jelly-filled doughnut topped with vanilla icing and drizzled in chocolate. Suggested retail price is 89 cents. Surprised to see a company like Dunkin' Donuts getting on board with royal madness? Don't be. The chief executive is a Brit.

Item 3: The ringless habits of royals.Over the past few days it's been widely reported that while Kate's ring will be made of exclusive Welsh gold from a mine that is no longer operating, Prince William will continue to go ringless after the ceremony. Apparently this is not unusual in the royal family. As the BBC reports, "William's father, the Prince of Wales, does wear a wedding band, but his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, does not."

Stay tuned for more!

--Deborah Netburn

Photos: Kate Middleton with Prince William as the two dedicated a lifeboat in their first official appearance since their engagement. Credit: AFP/Getty Images. Royal Wedding Donut credit: courtesy of Dunkin' Donuts.